Tales of homecoming after considerable periods away have long found resonance within our psyches, and classic works such as The Odessey, or more relatively recently, The Lord of the Rings, work with such themes to great effect because they touch upon something we can immediately relate to. What draws us back home varies; perhaps a need for comfort or security, or perhaps an urgency to finally make right. In the case of A Thousand Plateaus, which represents a reunion and homecoming for the late ‘80s cold(ish) wave band About the Poets, it is the desire to rekindle a torch that never really went fully out. Like its first “ATP” formation, which arose in and through a period of cultural and political turmoil, A Thousand Plateaus also finds itself emerging in a moment of even greater social and political unease and unrest. We have a feeling that this is no coincidence. However, we also know that we may not fully understand the circumstances which have brought us back together for a long time. For now, A Thousand Plateaus presents an outfit we feel has withstood the test of time. All four original bandmembers are back. They include Bruce Collet (vocals), Robert Kudrle (guitars), Kevin Anderson (bass), and Chris Weis (drums). And while we are no longer the wistful and idealistic 19-year-olds that made up the first ATP iteration, we neither have lost that shared sentiment (passion, angst, anger) that first brought us together. The world is just as fucked up as it ever was, but let’s face it, artists often find themselves compelled to draw energy from the flames.
We present our self-titled album as a portrait of a band that still dances close to the fire. However, with age we have found that fire to be as internal as external, and several of the songs we provide here could not have been written during our earlier iteration. What follows is our own assessment of the album’s tracks, and its overall sound…
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